mim3

Installed a rear set of Continentals last July and had the car aligned. Put around 1500miles on the car before it went into storage for the winter.

I took a nice highway drive (200 miles) this week and noticed the back of the car was covered in black stuff. My first thought was oil, but it turns out to be rubber. It appears the Conti's are disintegrating! Both rear tires have worn perfectly down and are nearly bald. I spoke with TireRack about getting them returned and they suggested I see a local store to get them warranted (nice customer service ) I head over to Bell Tire and get the Asst Mngr to look at the tires/back of car. We discovered the manufacture date was 2002 and he agreed with me that "something was not right with the tires". Bell Tire is still waiting for the Conti rep to get back to them.

The clear spots in the pic is where I wipped with my finger to show how much rubber is on the car.

Any thoughts?

mim3

Just got a call from Bell Tire....Continental is going to replace the tires!

LVDell

Very cool, glad it worked out. As for the "clear spot" on the rear bumper that you wiped off. I don't think that is tire rubber, it is carbon buildup from your exhaust.

mim3

Tastes like rubber
180 miles yesterday...tires almost gone.

LVDell

Now that looks like rubber! Ouch.

mim3

The saga continues. Continental is now offering me 75% off retail for replacement of the rear tires (no free replacment). But, Conti says they no longer make this model of tire. So, if I want to match the rear w/the front's then I need to order a set of the new model fronts (N2).

Does anyone know what the difference between the ContiSportContact N1 and N2 is?

Should I be concerned about having N1's on the front and N2's on the back?

Anyone else having problems w/their conti's?

Kiko

Personally I wouldn't mix N1 and N2 tires, P-cars are so sensitive about differents tires that you might feel some odd handling reactions. Even new/old tires make the car wiggle at high speed.
Just my experience though...

LVDell

I would press them further to get 100% replacement for all 4! They know you can't mix tires and they know the tires are old and shouldn't do this at 1500 miles. Show them your documentation and demand full replacement of all 4.

They are telling you 75% and by that you would anticipate getting 6K miles on a set of tires (you reported 1500 miles to date)? They are just trying to get extra cash out of you. Sounds like a typical insurance adjuster, low-balling you hoping you fight back but still willing to give more as long as you fight for it.

This is not the way it should be. Sounds like you got an old set of tires and they are deteriorating abnormally because of that.

djantlive

They should prorate according to warranty. If they can replace all 4 at 75% off, it sounds like a good deal. Ask Tirerack to get involved since they are a larger distributor.

mim3

DOT indicates 2002 manufacture date...didn't even think to check, my bad. The folks at TireRack were actually laughing at me when I told them the rears had worn out at 1500 miles. What sucks the most is that everyone I have spoken to believes that I have been "lead footing it". That is definetly not the case and I try to explain to them the car is a C4 not an '84 camaro dirven by a 16 year old.

Gretch

Those tires must have been left out in the sun or somehow subjected to other corrosive vapors to have the rubber fail like that. How many miles did you get out of them? I have seen tires wear out very fast because of alignment issues, but never so evenly like that. Just curious what were they inflated to? (even over inflating them shouldn't do that......) I only got 11k out of my first rear set of conti's and I didn't do all that well with the second set either. I switched to Yoks......love 'em.

1999Porsche911

The black stuff you talk about exists on every clean and waxed 996 ever made (and most every other car) and it is from tire wear, and road film. You cannot wash your Porsche and drive it for 200 miles on the highway and not get this dust. As for the wear, either you do ALOT of left cornering or your camber setting is way off. Highway driving or otherwise straight driving will ALWAYS wear the inside half of the rear tires if the allignment is set to specs.

I see no sign of disintegrating of the tire in the picture, only uneven wear on the outside half of the tread which I bet is because they screwed up your alignment last year.

mim3

Pressures 36/44. Purchased tires 7/16/2004, installed, aligned 7/22/2004. This was done around 16,000 miles. Drove about 1500 miles before storing in my garage. Drove 200 miles last week and 300 miles this week. Right tire is now almost bald. I should also note the fronts are original and are in great condition.

First set of rears did wear out do to poor alignment (inside wore faster than outside), but at 16K. So, this time I wanted to make sure I had the car set up correctly.

1999Porsche911

I suspect that the rear alignment is NOT setup correctly. It was setup correctly the first time. If you told the alignment shop that you had a problem with the inside of the rear tires wearing out, they probably overcompensated and you now have a positive camber which is not right. Did they give you a printout of the alignment settings? I would get it checked before putting new tires on.

The rear tires on these cars should only last about 10,000 miles for street driving unless you put on some cheap, hard rubber tires.

mim3

Pic 1 OEM tire 7/2004
Pic 2 2000 miles on right tire
Pic 3 rubber on left pipe
Pic 4 what fell off when I wipped left pipe

I did take the car to my mechanic and he will re-check the alignment. Maybe I wasn't clear in my previous posts, I did not have this problem from July to November. About 500 highway miles since putting the car back in service and all the tread is gone. It looks to me like the wear pattern is what you would expect for a correctly aligned car. The rubber just wore out at an extremely accelerated pace.

I appreciate the feedback.